Murder-suicide suspected in pair's deaths

Updated 11:45 pm, Friday, October 18, 2013

Photo: Drew Joseph/San Antonio Express-

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Neighbors and family members built a memorial to Irma Davila and her daughter, Destiny, on their front porch on Globe Avenue. The two were found dead at the home Thursday. Police believe Hector Davila -- Irma's estranged husband and Destiny's father -- killed them before fatally shooting himself.

Neighbors and family members built a memorial to Irma Davila and her daughter, Destiny, on their front porch on Globe Avenue. The two were found dead at the home Thursday. Police believe Hector Davila -- Irma's

An airman and his wife were found dead late Thursday in a West Side apartment in an apparent murder-suicide, two days after friends heard them having a late night argument, authorities said.

Senior Airman Cody Hooks, 21, was considered a suspect and Kaylla Brooke Rihn listed as a homicide victim in the shooting, but neither the Air Force nor San Antonio police knew just when they died.

A police report released Friday said three people found their bodies Thursday, about 48 hours after the newlywed couple had a late-night argument.

“Just to let everyone know that my daughter Kaylla Rihn has been called to heaven to be with God and passed love ones,” her father, Philip Rihn, wrote on his Facebook page.

“I announce this with a very sad heart,” added Rihn, who could not be reached. “Please pray for her and those left here to cope with this tragic loss.”

A co-worker said Rihn and Hooks were married only a couple of weeks ago, but that most of the people she worked with didn't learn of that until word of her death spread Friday, hours after police were called to her apartment in the 8200 block of Micron Drive. It was not clear if Hooks also lived at the same address.

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The police came late Thursday after witnesses discovered the couple dead. Two of them had been with Hooks and Rihn, a waitress at the Rivercenter Mall Hooters, the previous Tuesday night, but left as the couple argued.

They found Rihn dead with a bullet wound to one eye, and Hooks, a member of the 802nd Security Forces Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, with a .40-caliber wound to his temple. A Beretta handgun was found near his body.

The incident would be the first murder-suicide Joint Base San Antonio has had this year if it's confirmed. Last year, two active-duty airmen killed themselves, said Brent Boller, a spokesman with the joint base.

He said the airman was last seen by a supervisor Sunday after finishing his swing shift, and was due to return at 1 p.m. Thursday.

“When he didn't show up for duty, that started the process of trying to locate him,” Boller said.

Suicides have plagued the armed forces for years, with self-inflicted deaths rising after the U.S. went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq. A record was set last year, with the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps logging 514 suicides.

So far, 2013 is on track to be just as dismal, with 245 troops killing themselves from January through June, statistics compiled by the San Antonio Express-News show. Of those, 38 were airmen.

Little was known about Hooks. He was in his first tour of duty, joining the service in summer 2010, and some of the waitresses at Hooters said they believed he had deployed.

The Air Force declined to confirm his service history or give his name, with Boller saying few details were being released “in deference to the family.”

Rihn, 22, was described as a happy, outgoing woman who left whatever problems she had at the door when she came to work at Hooters, where she had been employed for the past year.

One worker, Vanessa Gonzalez, said everyone she knows is “in shock at the whole situation.”

“There were no signs at all her relationship with her husband was so bad,” Gonzalez, 22, of San Antonio, agreed, but noted that Rihn was one of the few waitresses who didn't talk about her relationship.

“She was like, full of life, the sweetest girl,” waitress Kelsey Call, 23, of San Antonio said.

“Drama-free, always smiling,” said Samantha Pace, who trained Rihn when she began working at Hooters.

“She was always a step ahead of everyone,” said another waitress, Jasmin New, 23, of San Antonio.

The waitresses said Rihn had another job — helping mentally challenged children as a certified nursing assistant.

Rihn's Facebook page stated that she studied nursing at Del Mar College and graduated from Hebbronville High School in 2009. The site included a quotation from Proverbs 31:25: “She is clothed with strength and dignity and laughs without fear of the future.”